| Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22. | | | | What the Civilian Saw | | By Violet Hunt Hueffer |
| | Kensington High Street
IT is all shiny and black, like bombazine or taffeta, | |
| Or the satin of my grandmother’s gown, that stood alone | |
| It was so thick; | |
| A screen between us and knowledge, | |
| That sometimes, when we are very good, gets on to the placards. | 5 |
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| Past the screen of the dark the rain glissades, | |
| Flowing down the straight damp palisades of the dark. | |
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| Faces against the screen, | |
| Lamps of living flesh hung out in the storm | |
| That has draped the world in black…. | 10 |
| Here by the station an iridescent sheen, | |
| Dazzling, not gay. And news, | |
| Special; oh, “Special”! | |
| What have they let through to us from over there— | |
| For once? | 15 |
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| Faces, news, on the screen, | |
| And the hungry crowds weltering in the dark! | |
| Here is the English translation | |
| Of what goes on over there, | |
| There where hangings are not black but red, | 20 |
| And the king of England is lying on the ground…… | | | | |
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